Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Company convicted of sending spam email to former swimmer Michelle Smith de Bruin

Two companies have been convicted of sending
spam email or text messages, including one sent to barrister and former Olympic
swimmer Michelle Smith
de Bruin.

Lex Software
Ltd, trading as Legal and General Software, pleaded guilty before the Dublin
District Court to two charges of sending unsolicited email messages – one to Ms
Smith de Bruin and another to Patrick Wilkinson.

In evidence, assistant data protection
commissioner Tony Delaney
told the court the defendant company had admitted sending the spam email after
a formal warning had previously been issued by the Data Protection Commissioner
following an earlier complaint by Ms Smith de Bruin.

He said it had also confirmed having sent a spam
email to Mr Wilkinson without providing a means of allowing him opt out of
receiving further marketing emails. The company pleaded guilty to both charges.

Operations director of Lex Software, John
Gilmartin, submitted that Ms Smith de Bruin’s details had been removed from the
company’s list at her request but when a new list of contacts had been created
using the updated legal directory, her details had been included in error.

The company had engaged an external provider to
ensure all future marketing emails would contain a means of opting out.

Judge William Hamill
imposed convictions on both charges and fined the company €200 in respect of
each one.

Separately, Judge Hamill convicted Hanford
Commercial Ltd, trading as the Maldron Hotel,
Wexford, on a charge of sending an unsolicited marketing message by text, where
a complainant had previously opted out of receiving such messages. The company
pleaded guilty to the charge. Judge Hamill imposed a fine of €200.

Mr Delaney told the court the complainant,
Robert Gogan, had previously sought the assistance of the Data Protection
Commissioner to ensure his details were removed from the company’s database and
that a formal warning had been issued to it in February of last year.

Sean McKeon, of the hotel group, told the court
steps had been taken to ensure compliance with the regulations on sending such
material.